Sebastian Vettel’s accident on lap 22 of the Australian Grand Prix put the safety car on track. Alpine rider Fernando Alonso, who started on hard tires, was among those ruined by this outing – the Spaniard finished 17th, although he had every chance of earning points.
Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer led Aston Martin last year and after finishing the race in Melbourne joked that Vettel crashed the car on purpose to ruin Alonso’s race: “The safety car came on track at the wrong time for us, but at the right time for Aston Martin Maybe Sebastian got involved in the accident on purpose to provoke the appearance of the safety car – probably because they wanted revenge on me!
Seriously, it was Fernando’s race. If in qualifying it was possible to show the result what the car is capable of, Fernando, like everyone else, would start on Medium and the safety car would not surprise him.
Alex Albon, like Fernando Alonso, started on Hard. The Williams driver made the only pit stop on the last lap and earned a point for tenth place. Szafnauer explained why Alpine did not follow this strategy for Alonso: “I was surprised by the speed of Williams on hard tires for 57 laps. And I wouldn’t be surprised if such a speed came as a surprise to them.
If we had followed the same strategy, Fernando would have finished tenth for Albon. However, we make decisions based on the information available to us at any given time. Predicting the future is very difficult. If I could, I’d be in Las Vegas right now.”
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
